(**) Torchwood Fic - Had I The Heavens (part 5)
Title: Had I The Heavens - Part 5/6 (**)
Pairing: mostly gen, but quite a lot of different pairings will be appearing throughout the story (both slash and het - consider yourself warned - although there will be nothing explicit)
Rating/Warning: 15 - violence, abuse, implied rape
Spoilers: Set immediately after the events of 2.05 - Adam, so spoilers up until this point in the series
Summary: Adam’s stupid, but he has a talent that Captain John can use. Finally this is a way he can get back into the hub…
Author's Notes: Huge thanks to thebirdwoman for her wonderful beta services and making sure this all makes sense. Sorry that this has taken a while, writing the last two chapters have been a bit of a nightmare. I’m hoping to get the last part up before the season finale airs next week, but with a looming dissertation deadline, I can’t promise anything. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the BBC and RTD - I’m just borrowing them and I promise I’ll return them (mostly) unharmed.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
CHAPTER 5
Under Your Feet
Tosh loved waking up warm and rested. She could feel Ianto’s breath soft against her neck. She sighed. A deep, satisfied sigh.
“You awake?” Ianto murmured behind her, tickling her neck.
“Hmmm…”
“We’re going to be late for work,” he told her.
It was a few more minutes before they got out of bed and then there was a messy flurry of dressing and eating breakfast and searching for keys and quickly stolen kisses, before they finally clambered into her car.
They drove in comfortable silence, not needing to talk. After a few minutes Ianto switched on the radio. It was a news report.
“… Police have revealed that the body of a young woman was found this morning in Cardiff city centre. The death is being treated as suspicious and investigations are ongoing…” Out of the corner of her eye, Tosh saw Ianto frown at the radio, then he looked up and smiled at her.
“The police have asked us to reassure people that there’s no reason to panic but have encouraged women not to go out at night and alone and to take every precaution,” the newsreader finished as she pulled into the car park.
“Ready for another boring day at the office?” Ianto asked her as she finished parking the car.
“Depends. Are there going to be any perks?” She asked and he leaned in and kissed her.
“Mmmm,” she sighed as they pulled away, “I wish we didn’t have to keep this a secret.”
“You know what they’d say,” he told her. “Come on, no use putting off the inevitable.”
“Finally,” the newsreader was saying as Tosh gathered her things together, “a Cardiff man was surprised to wake up this morning with a perfect pair of breasts. A staff member at Cardiff General told us exclusively that they were baffled by the…”
She turned off the ignition.
* * * * *
John couldn’t help a sense of smug satisfaction as Jack brushed his hand against the small of his back, relaxed and comfortable. They were waiting in the board room for the others to arrive, checking through Adam’s feeble report. The sounds of the early morning madness of the Hub drifting in, quietly muffled. It felt like it was just the two of them.
He’d spent the night at the Hub again. It was all too easy to find excuses not to check on Ianto, to leave Adam to take care of him and it was so much easier to imagine this was how life had always been without Ianto to remind him otherwise.
Jack straightened and removed his hand as the others began to drift into the room and settle into their seats. Adam was last, carrying a tray of coffee. He looked worryingly happy. John shot him a pointed look as he handed him a coffee mug but received only a bland smile in response.
“Owen, what have you got?” Jack asked as Adam settled into his seat a moment later.
“Nothing, it was a complete waste of time, no one knew anything. Whatever this stuff is, it’s obviously new.”
“The police said mostly the same,” Gwen added, “They’ve heard vague rumours that there’s something new on the market but they don’t know anything about it. They hadn’t even heard the name Dreamscape.”
“Right,” Jack sounded annoyed, “So we have no leads and no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“Actually,” Adam interrupted smoothly not looking at John, “I managed to get this.” He set a small object on the table - shaped like a fir cone, but vividly coloured with pinks and blues and some purple. “It’s Dreamscape,” he added unnecessarily.
Tosh’s face lit up with a beautiful smile, her eyes fixed on Ianto. For a moment John felt a flutter of concern but was distracted as Jack tensed beside him.
“I told you not to go looking for this,” He said, his voice carefully even.
“I had a hunch and used my initiative. I thought you would be pleased, Sir.” The atmosphere in the room was uncertain and uncomfortable. Tosh reached into the bag beside her and pulled out her scanner.
“Definitely alien,” she said happily moments later, “Plant based I think.”
“Did the person you got this from know where it came from?” Jack asked him.
“He had no idea, I checked.” Adam’s voice was smug.
John glanced around at them all. Tosh was enthralled with what she was doing, Gwen looked confused, her eyes focused on Jack, and Owen looked annoyed. Whatever Jack was thinking, he was now hiding it.
“So we’re no closer to finding out where this bloody stuff actually came from,” Owen moaned.
“Well we’ll just have to do some old fashioned police deducing,” Gwen suggested with a smile, obviously trying to lighten the mood. “What do we know about the victims?”
“They were all drug addled idiots who would eat weird alien plant substances without knowing what they’d do and we’re probably better off without them,” Owen matched Gwen’s smile perfectly.
“If you’re not going…” Gwen started to reply and John decided it would be a good time to interrupt her.
“Or, in other words, they’re mostly students… Or they have connections to students,” he amended. “They probably got the drugs at a party, so that probably means it was another student supplying them.”
John hesitated for a moment, ignoring the others as they began to discuss the possibilities. His mind was clutching at something. Then he remembered, there had been a party, one of those boys had said they’d gone to one with Jess’ boyfriend just before he’d given her the Dreamscape. Those boys…
He remembered them. Arguing and tense and in a room filled with plants.
“Did you say it was plant based?” He asked Tosh, cutting across the others conversation. She looked up at him, her face radiant.
“Definitely.”
“I know who gave Damien the Dreamscape.” He told them firmly.
* * * * *
David looked scared and miserable, while Alan was silent and surly and avoiding looking at Jack.
“I found the berries about a month ago, while I was doing some cataloguing for the university,” David told them. “There were six of them, no notes with them or anything. God knows how long they had been there, but they were still fresh. Nobody knew what they were and nobody seemed to care very much so I thought I’d make them into a private project.”
“What did you do with them?” Jack asked.
“Well from their makeup they looked like they were edible so I gave one to a rat. I borrowed him from the university as well. It just put him to sleep - a really deep sleep - he woke up the next morning, fine - happier - as far as you can tell with rats.”
“And the others?”
“I’d been having trouble sleeping, stress and… I know it was stupid but…”
“You took one,” John filled in for him. He was leaning against the door, so silent that Jack had almost forgotten he was there. David nodded, his eyes not leaving the floor.
“What happened?” Jack asked him.
“I must have gone to sleep straight away, I woke up… I don’t know, fifteen hours later. Missed most of my lectures. All I could remember was that I’d had these incredible dreams. You know, really vivid, but I couldn’t remember them properly.”
“And there weren’t any side effects?” Jack pressed him; David met Alan’s eyes for a second and then shook his head. “OK, that’s two of them, what about the other four?”
“I tried one of the others,” Alan told him, taking over. “Same as David, good dreams, feeling of euphoria in the morning, no side effects.”
Possibly only bad things happened when people had nightmares, Jack thought.
“I planted the last three,” David continued, “tried different things - putting them in the dark, under lamps, different plant food. Only that one survived,” he gestured to a lush green plant stood on his desk. Through each leaf, its skeleton could be clearly seen - a delicate, vivid pink structure. Jack could see tiny purple buds beginning to grow.
“And you gave them to your friends? Even though you didn’t know what they were,” Jack asked him.
“We didn’t know they would do any damage,” Alan replied defensively. “They were natural; we thought they’d be alright.”
“Cannabis is natural - that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any bad side affects.” Alan snorted derisively.
“We didn’t mean any harm,” David told him, his voice was shaking. “As soon as we heard what had happened to Damien, we called everyone we had given it to, told them to destroy them. Didn’t we?” He looked at Alan desperately for confirmation, at first the other boy wouldn’t meet his gaze, then he nodded, slightly too quickly.
Jack was about to question him further when Gwen suddenly spoke in his ear, she sounded worried.
“Jack?” Turning away from the boys, he pressed his comm.
“Yep.”
“Detective Swanson just called us - she wants us to meet her in at Queen’s Arcade as soon as possible. She sounds desperate, Jack.”
“Right, I’ll come right away. Meet me there.”
“What about the others?”
“They can stay at the Hub for now. I’ll send John back with what we’ve found here - we’ll need it analysed. If we need them we can call them.”
Jack turned back to the boys.
“This is your lucky day. We have something else to deal with, but don’t try disappearing, because I will track you down and you don’t want to make me angry.”
* * * * *
Gwen headed out and without much else to do Owen headed to the greenhouse. He liked the plants. None of them were normal for a start, they were all of alien origin and they allowed him to dabble in research in his spare minutes. It was like returning to the beginnings of medicine.
He worked through the plants, making sure they were still all right, watering those that needed it. Picking off dead leaves and storing them in bags, he could look at them next time they had a quiet week.
As he pushed some branches aside to reach one of the smaller plants at the back, he spotted Tosh and Ianto below. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought they were flirting. He felt a twinge of guilt, he’d been horrible to Tosh in the last couple of days, everything had just seemed out of sorts.
Owen was about to get on with the plants, when Tosh suddenly, unexpectedly, pulled Ianto into a kiss. A passionate kiss. A familiar bloody kiss. What the hell was going on?
He waited until Ianto had headed back to the tourist information office and then went to find her.
“What the hell is going on?” He demanded.
“With what?” She replied distractedly, absorbed in something on her computer.
“With Ianto.” She flushed quickly and turned to look at him, biting her lip nervously.
“You saw us?”
“Yes, I bloody saw you,” he snapped, “You were kissing him!” Tosh sighed.
“Well, I might as well tell you. We’re dating, we have been for months.”
“What?” This conversation was completely insane. Tosh just shrugged at him and turned back to the computer, obviously not feeling the need to explain herself. Owen forced himself to take a few deep breaths, well just two, to calm himself down and tried again. It was clearly his responsibility to talk some sense into her. “Look Tosh, do you really think dating Ianto is a good idea?”
“I don’t see why we should be talking about this,” she told him firmly.
“Because I’m worried about you.”
“Look, it’s none of your business.”
“But… Ianto?” He couldn’t keep the exasperation from seeping into his voice but Tosh just ignored him, her lips were very thin. “I mean he’s so… so…. And him and Jack,” Owen hesitated. He had definitely been going to say something about Ianto and Jack but he had no idea what it was going to be. He rallied. “After what happened to Lisa do you really think he’s the sort of man you should be getting into a relationship with?”
It was a moment before she turned to look at him, her expression confused.
“Lisa?"
“Yeah, Lisa,” her face remained blank. “You know, his cyber-girlfriend, that he hid in the basement for months and lied about. The one who nearly killed us…”
“What are you talking about?” They stood in silence for a second, staring at each other. The dawning realisation that something was wrong clear on both their faces.
“You’re really going to wish you hadn’t said that,” Adam was leaning in the doorway, his expression dangerous.
* * * * *
“Follow me,” Detective Swanson told them cryptically once Jack arrived. She’d been tight lipped with Gwen while they were waiting, refusing to say anything where they might be overheard.
She led them into one of the back alleys opposite the shopping arcade - a well known shortcut to a local car park. It had been roped off by the police.
Half way down the alley, forensics were examining the body of a girl.
“She was strangled,” Swanson told them.
“Do you think it’s the same person who killed the woman you found this morning?” Gwen asked her.
“That’s what the evidence is suggesting.”
“A second murder within a day,” Jack sounded tired. Detective Swanson was silent for a moment and then took a deep breath.
“Fourth. We haven’t told the press yet and according to the times of death they’re all within ten hours of each other, roughly. No evidence, no witnesses…” Swanson waved one of her hands slightly, a small gesture which somehow clearly showed how powerless she was feeling.
“Fuck,” Gwen breathed.
“All right, well we’ll do what we can to help, but I don’t see what this has to do with us,” Jack told her, “I don’t see Torchwood scrawled on any of these walls.” It was almost flirting, but oddly lacklustre, there was definitely something wrong and Gwen decided that as soon as this was sorted out she was going to make Jack talk to her.
“We haven’t got any witnesses, but both ends of this alley are visible on CCTV footage.” Gwen glanced along the alley, the buildings on either side were tall, with no windows or doors or openings. “No one can get in or out of this alley without us knowing.”
“I’ve had my team going through the footage, they’ve already gone through the last 48 hours. Until the victim goes in, no one enters this alleyway who doesn’t leave it. There was no one down here when the girl was attacked.”
The unspoken questions hung in the air for a second. Only broken as Tosh’s voice suddenly appeared in their ear pieces. Jack turned away from them both.
“Jack? Gwen?”
“We’re here,” Jack’s voice echoed strangely, repeated through the comm. system.
“We’re all at Cathays Park… it’s… look you really have to get here. Meet us at the back of the Town Hall, all right.”
“Right.”
He turned back to Swanson.
“Something’s happened - we’ve got to go. But we’ll catch whoever did this,” Jack told her, his frustration and anger clear in his voice.
* * * * *
Ianto shuddered awake, cramped and uncomfortable. The water pounding down on him was ice cold, his clothes were soaked, sticking to his skin and he couldn’t stop his body from shivering violently.
After a few seconds he carefully tilted his head back, letting the water seep into his throat. It was too cold and his stomach was too empty, it made him feel sick, but it had been so long since he’d had enough to drink.
He couldn’t remember what had happened the night before or why he was in the bathroom but it was with rising excitement that he realised that for the first time since he had been brought here he wasn’t tied to anything.
It was difficult to get to his feet, the floor was slippy, his body weak and uncooperative and without his hands there was no way to balance himself but he managed it.
It took less time to take in the bathroom. Just a shower and a sink and a toilet. He tried the door as best he could with his bound hands but it was locked and too solid for him to break.
There was a small window above the toilet, wonderful Welsh architects had struck again making life easier for perverts. One glance out of it told him that he was too far up to risk escaping that way with his hands still bound.
As he looked around the room he caught sight of himself in the mirror for a moment. Pale and bruised, devoid of warmth. His shirt was torn and filthy. He turned from the mirror quickly and checked the rest of the room.
There wasn’t much that could help him, but the shower cubicle’s door was made of glass. It stood open, resting against the wall. He looked at it for a while, it was his only hope. If he could break it…
He tried kicking it, but there was nothing to balance against and he couldn’t muster the strength. It just banged harmlessly against the wall.
Finally, hopelessly, he threw his whole body against the door. He felt it hit the wall behind him, flex slightly, and then resettle back into shape. He tried again. For a second he thought it had worked, but then there was nothing.
Again and again he threw himself against the door, the last of his energy ebbing away. Until suddenly, unexpectedly, the glass broke beneath his weight. He sunk to his knees as it gave way, feeling the broken shards digging into his back and legs, one piece piercing his arm deeply.
He sucked in a breath and then bit down on his tongue to stem the pain. He had to sit for what felt like an age, recovering.
Finally he looked to his side where the metal hinge of the door still stood, clinging onto a jagged broken edge of glass. It would be enough.
It was a struggle to get back to his feet and difficult to saw through the soaking electrical tape. More than once he slipped, cutting his hands and wrists. He had no sense of time anymore, but it must have taken at least half an hour; it felt like days. At last the tape gave way, his muscles screaming at the sudden freedom.
He sank onto the toilet seat, grateful for the rest and surveyed the damage. He was starving and soaking and covered in blood. The piece of glass that had cut his arm was still stuck in it, but he couldn’t risk pulling it out. Instead, finding a towel, he ripped strips of bandages and did what he could.
When he was finished, Ianto stood with a steadiness of purpose that his body couldn’t hope to match and surveyed the window. Only the top part opened, it would be a tight squeeze and he’d have to drop at least a storey and then he had no idea where he was. But he had to get back to the team.
* * * * *
Cathays Park was usually immaculate - beautifully designed and sculpted - but that had all disappeared. Instead it looked like a scene from World War II, almost exactly like a scene from World War II, Jack noted wryly.
There were trenches and wire and guns, the remains of bodies and even in the distance the shattered wreck of a plane. A Spitfire by the look of it.
He looked across at John, who shrugged.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
“And it wasn’t like this last night?”
“It wasn’t like this an hour ago. There’s CCTV footage,” Tosh explained, “it goes blurry for a second and this sort of pops into existence.”
“Maybe a piece of World War II got caught in the Rift and popped out here,” Gwen suggested.
“It’s possible but I haven’t picked anything up on the Rift monitor.”
Jack left them discussing it and made his way through the desolated Park to where the plane had crashed. He was careful not to look too closely at the things around him; it was hard to ignore the memories crowding around him as it was.
They already had too much to deal with and this was just another thing that he didn’t understand and had no idea how to solve. He hated days like this. He pushed aside the feeling that his bad mood was more about John than anything else. He didn’t want to think about that either.
It was only when Jack was close to the spitfire that he noticed something was wrong. The shape was off and, yes, it was far too big. He reached out to touch the cold metal. It was real, but even that didn’t feel right.
He turned quickly, surveying the scene, and other mistakes jumped out at him. He couldn’t believe he had missed them before.
Jack quickly returned to where the others were arguing about what course of action Torchwood Guidelines would suggest when a historical battlefield manifested itself in your city.
“It’s not real,” he told them firmly, they looked at him blankly. “Well it is real, it’s here, but it’s not right - it’s more like a film set than a battlefield.”
“I was beginning to get that impression as well,” Owen added. He was crouched a little way away next to one of the bodies. “We’ve got a lot of blood and guts here, but half the vital organs are missing - not blown out of your body missing either - there isn’t even any space left where you could have fitted them.”
“So we’ve got a made up battlefield instead of a real one,” John tried to interrupt, “I’m not really sure how that makes the problem any easier.”
“It’s like someone just put in what they expected to find in a body,” Owen continued, the words stirred a memory.
“What was it you said about Errol when we first found him?” Jack asked. “That he was like a…”
“Child’s drawing,” Owen finished. They looked at each other, ignoring the others, putting the pieces together. Then Jack nodded at him.
“Right, there’s nothing we can do here for now. Gwen - call the police, get them to seal off the area and start the clean up operation. Then, you and John go to the University residences,” he looked over at John. “I need you to bring those students we were talking to earlier to the Hub. There’s something they’re not telling us.”
“The rest of us will go straight there. We have a murderer to catch.”
* * * * *
Owen rubbed the rough skin underneath Errol’s chin. From somewhere Jack had found a dog leash which just about fit him and now he was firmly tied to the banister. They didn’t have to wait long.
As soon as John and Gwen led the students through the Hub door, the pair shrank back, their eyes fixed on Errol, fear on their faces. Beside him, Errol’s back arched and his wings spread open trying to make himself look bigger. He roared silently at them, clearly trying to flame but unable. Owen had never seen Errol react like this to anyone before.
“Shit,” one of them breathed.
“So I’m getting the impression that this isn’t the first time you’ve met our friend,” Jack said from above them on the gangway, his voice devoid of humour. They were too scared for a moment to respond.
“Why isn’t he… why isn’t there any fire?” One of the boys asked.
“We’ve stopped him,” Owen told them.
“So what else didn’t you tell us, David?” Jack asked.
“Look, we would have told you, told someone - but who would have believed us?”
“So you tried to kill him?” Owen spat at them.
“We didn’t have a choice - he nearly burnt the halls down and it wasn’t like there was anywhere we could take him,” the boy sounded genuinely sorry.
“What happened David?” Jack asked, continuing to ignore the other boy.
“It was like I said but… well, when I woke up the rat’s cage had turned into a massive maze. He was happy, though, he’d got to the centre and it was crammed with food - everything you could imagine. And that seemed like a good idea, I mean waking up with all the stuff you could want, so we both tried it. The dream was horrible and when I woke up he was there…”
“Nothing happened to me when I took it,” the other boy interrupted, “And my dreams were fine.”
“I’ll get to you later,” Jack snapped at him and turned back to David.
“What else?”
“I tried to look after him, but he kept getting bigger and in the end it was the only thing we could think of,” David’s voice was small. “But I promise you that there we told you everything else and we did make sure that all the remaining Dreamscape was destroyed.”
“Well, we have evidence that it wasn’t. I have a feeling you can tell me about that, Alan.” Jack turned at last to the other boy.
“We’ve told you everything we know,” Alan replied, David nodding desperately at his side, stopping in shock as Jack held up the Dreamscape that Ianto had found.
“We think this was bought from a drug dealer in town, we know you’re the only people who could have provided it, and we just need to know…”
As Jack had been talking, David had turned to stare in anger at Alan. Without warning he shoved him hard. Errol keened beside Owen.
“You gave them to him? I told you…”
“I didn’t have any other way to pay him,” Alan spat back at him. “He was threatening me...”
“We don’t have time for this, I don’t care why you did it,” Jack told them angrily, “All we want to know is who you gave it to.” Alan closed his mouth firmly, but David turned back to Jack, his expression still angry.
“He’s called Pete, I don’t know his last name, but you can usually find him at the Augustus John pub.”
“Fine, you two wait here, everyone else to the board room.”
Owen stroked Errol one last time and then followed the others. Jack was clearly tense and angry. It had been a long time since Owen had seen him this on edge. Once they were all in the room, he slammed the door shut behind them.
“So what do we know? Impress me, people.”
“Well, we know that the Dreamscape doesn’t just affect the people who have it in their system,” Tosh said, “It can create things as well.”
“And we know that there’s probably more out there,” Gwen added.
“Plus we have no idea how to get rid of the bloody stuff it creates,” John pointed out. Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Well,” Jack said, “Right now we haven’t got time to worry about that, our priority has to be to get the rest of the Dreamscape off the street and to find this murderer.”
“God knows how,” Gwen said. They’d explained what Detective Swanson had told them when they’d first arrived at the Town Hall, before they’d seen what had happened to the park.
“What if…” Ianto began at the same time and then stopped again; he had been oddly quiet all afternoon.
“What?” John snapped quickly at him, his voice threatening.
“What if someone took the drug and dreamt that they… dreamt about a murderer?” His voice was low, laced with horror.
“Shit,” Owen said.
“Right,” Jack said firmly. “Gwen, John - I need you to come with me, I have an idea. You three, I want you to retcon those two and take them back to their Halls. I don’t want them remembering any of this. Then find this Pete, find out how much Dreamscape he had and who he sold it to. I don’t want any left out there.”
* * * * *
There was no time, Jack and Gwen were waiting, but John had to talk to Adam. He managed to catch him alone as the others left the board room, too aware that he only had seconds to spare.
He seized his shoulders and threw him face first against the wall. Pinning him there.
“What have you done?” John growled. Adam pushed backwards, knocking John off balance, for once surprising him.
They struggled, and for an irrational moment, John thought Adam was taller than before. Eventually they separated - facing each other as they breathed heavily. They both kept their distance, although neither seemed willing to back down.
“Tell me what you’ve done,” John ordered him.
“I haven’t done anything,” Adam spat and then without another word stormed from the room.
John couldn’t fight the sensation that everything was spiralling out of control.
* * * * *
Adam escaped from John, his heart pounding. He had to get back to Ianto. That drug had done something… If it had helped him escape. Had turned him into a killer. He needed to find out.
He had to get back to Ianto. But first there was a job he had to do.
Adam cursed and then raced to find the others.
* * * * *
“Absolutely not. It’s a terrible idea,” Detective Swanson was furious but Jack just grinned at her in response. If she’d still been in the police, Gwen thought, Jack would have infuriated her - probably regularly.
“How many girls has this thing killed?” Jack asked her, Swanson hesitated before responding.
“Five. We found another body an hour ago.”
“And the only thing we know is that all the attacks have happened in alleys. Somehow this thing knows where the girls will be and that they’re alone and can get there without being caught on any CCTV cameras. It’s all we’ve got to go on.”
“Which isn’t any reason to use one of your people as bait!”
“I’ll be fine,” Gwen tried to reassure her, biting down on her annoyance.
“We don’t even know how…” Swanson began but Jack interrupted her.
“Gwen is highly trained. She knows what she’s doing, and me and John will be within hearing distance, as soon as she shouts - we’ll be there.” Seeing Swanson open her mouth again, Jack continued. “Whether you like this or not, we’re doing it.”
Swanson looked like she was about to argue again but then she shut her mouth firmly. Torchwood were outside her power.
Jack turned back to Gwen. Despite what he’d said, he looked concerned. Behind him John was looking uncomfortable and distracted.
“We’re ready when you are,” he told her and then hugged her quickly, kissing her on the cheek. Gwen only smiled in return, turned and walked alone into the alley.
The sun was bright, the other end of the street clearly visible and with the comforting near presence of Jack and John, it should have been hard to be scared.
But Gwen had seen the body of the girl earlier. Her neck had been red and raw and Gwen couldn’t stop her heart from beating faster.
Gwen had almost reached the end of the alley, disappointed that Jack’s plan had failed when she was suddenly plunged into darkness. The air chilled around her and a heavy patter of rain began to fall.
She turned quickly to look behind her, but there was nobody there and she was suddenly nervously aware how far away John and Jack now were.
Turning back she realised that she could no longer see the end of the alley, seconds before it had only been a few feet away. She glanced between the two distant ends feeling trapped in the limitlessness of the alley.
“Jack!” She shouted, beginning to back against the alley wall. “Jack! John!”
With a feeling of terror, her back hit something firm, but it was not the cold slippery surface of the wall. There was softness to it, warmth, a tall threatening presence and then hard hands wrapped around her neck.
Gwen screamed and then pulled away, wrenching from the man's grasp. She flung herself backwards against the opposite wall, catching her first sight of him - tall and dark - his face menacing in the dim light.
As he came back towards her, she kicked out hard, knocking him back slightly and then fumbling pulled out her gun pointing it firmly at him.
“Don’t even think about it,” she told him and he smiled. A chilling smile.
Without warning he seized her hand and spinning her, crushed it against the wall until the gun was forced from her fingers. With his other hand he seized her neck, pressing her face against the stones.
His hand tightened, squeezing and she gasped painfully, the world turning a shade darker and then suddenly the pressure was gone and she could breathe again.
Warm arms caught her as she almost fell and she looked up into John’s worried face, he grinned at her briefly.
“I guess we’ll have to find another way to get rid of you,” he told her. Gwen laughed weakly and was horrified to hear that it sounded more like a sob, but John wasn’t paying attention. He had looked away from her and his face collapsed for a moment before it hardened. “Fuck,” he breathed.
Gwen followed his gaze, Jack was on the ground, his weight pinning the man to the floor, light returning around them as the dark unnaturalness vanished.
It highlighted their hair, the way Jack’s hand wrapped around the man’s arm, the vulnerable place at the base of a neck where the man’s shirt had torn slightly.
It highlighted the way Jack was gazing down at the man, his expression soft and oddly undone, undisguised longing in his eyes.
CHAPTER 6
Pairing: mostly gen, but quite a lot of different pairings will be appearing throughout the story (both slash and het - consider yourself warned - although there will be nothing explicit)
Rating/Warning: 15 - violence, abuse, implied rape
Spoilers: Set immediately after the events of 2.05 - Adam, so spoilers up until this point in the series
Summary: Adam’s stupid, but he has a talent that Captain John can use. Finally this is a way he can get back into the hub…
Author's Notes: Huge thanks to thebirdwoman for her wonderful beta services and making sure this all makes sense. Sorry that this has taken a while, writing the last two chapters have been a bit of a nightmare. I’m hoping to get the last part up before the season finale airs next week, but with a looming dissertation deadline, I can’t promise anything. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the BBC and RTD - I’m just borrowing them and I promise I’ll return them (mostly) unharmed.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
CHAPTER 5
Under Your Feet
Tosh loved waking up warm and rested. She could feel Ianto’s breath soft against her neck. She sighed. A deep, satisfied sigh.
“You awake?” Ianto murmured behind her, tickling her neck.
“Hmmm…”
“We’re going to be late for work,” he told her.
It was a few more minutes before they got out of bed and then there was a messy flurry of dressing and eating breakfast and searching for keys and quickly stolen kisses, before they finally clambered into her car.
They drove in comfortable silence, not needing to talk. After a few minutes Ianto switched on the radio. It was a news report.
“… Police have revealed that the body of a young woman was found this morning in Cardiff city centre. The death is being treated as suspicious and investigations are ongoing…” Out of the corner of her eye, Tosh saw Ianto frown at the radio, then he looked up and smiled at her.
“The police have asked us to reassure people that there’s no reason to panic but have encouraged women not to go out at night and alone and to take every precaution,” the newsreader finished as she pulled into the car park.
“Ready for another boring day at the office?” Ianto asked her as she finished parking the car.
“Depends. Are there going to be any perks?” She asked and he leaned in and kissed her.
“Mmmm,” she sighed as they pulled away, “I wish we didn’t have to keep this a secret.”
“You know what they’d say,” he told her. “Come on, no use putting off the inevitable.”
“Finally,” the newsreader was saying as Tosh gathered her things together, “a Cardiff man was surprised to wake up this morning with a perfect pair of breasts. A staff member at Cardiff General told us exclusively that they were baffled by the…”
She turned off the ignition.
* * * * *
John couldn’t help a sense of smug satisfaction as Jack brushed his hand against the small of his back, relaxed and comfortable. They were waiting in the board room for the others to arrive, checking through Adam’s feeble report. The sounds of the early morning madness of the Hub drifting in, quietly muffled. It felt like it was just the two of them.
He’d spent the night at the Hub again. It was all too easy to find excuses not to check on Ianto, to leave Adam to take care of him and it was so much easier to imagine this was how life had always been without Ianto to remind him otherwise.
Jack straightened and removed his hand as the others began to drift into the room and settle into their seats. Adam was last, carrying a tray of coffee. He looked worryingly happy. John shot him a pointed look as he handed him a coffee mug but received only a bland smile in response.
“Owen, what have you got?” Jack asked as Adam settled into his seat a moment later.
“Nothing, it was a complete waste of time, no one knew anything. Whatever this stuff is, it’s obviously new.”
“The police said mostly the same,” Gwen added, “They’ve heard vague rumours that there’s something new on the market but they don’t know anything about it. They hadn’t even heard the name Dreamscape.”
“Right,” Jack sounded annoyed, “So we have no leads and no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“Actually,” Adam interrupted smoothly not looking at John, “I managed to get this.” He set a small object on the table - shaped like a fir cone, but vividly coloured with pinks and blues and some purple. “It’s Dreamscape,” he added unnecessarily.
Tosh’s face lit up with a beautiful smile, her eyes fixed on Ianto. For a moment John felt a flutter of concern but was distracted as Jack tensed beside him.
“I told you not to go looking for this,” He said, his voice carefully even.
“I had a hunch and used my initiative. I thought you would be pleased, Sir.” The atmosphere in the room was uncertain and uncomfortable. Tosh reached into the bag beside her and pulled out her scanner.
“Definitely alien,” she said happily moments later, “Plant based I think.”
“Did the person you got this from know where it came from?” Jack asked him.
“He had no idea, I checked.” Adam’s voice was smug.
John glanced around at them all. Tosh was enthralled with what she was doing, Gwen looked confused, her eyes focused on Jack, and Owen looked annoyed. Whatever Jack was thinking, he was now hiding it.
“So we’re no closer to finding out where this bloody stuff actually came from,” Owen moaned.
“Well we’ll just have to do some old fashioned police deducing,” Gwen suggested with a smile, obviously trying to lighten the mood. “What do we know about the victims?”
“They were all drug addled idiots who would eat weird alien plant substances without knowing what they’d do and we’re probably better off without them,” Owen matched Gwen’s smile perfectly.
“If you’re not going…” Gwen started to reply and John decided it would be a good time to interrupt her.
“Or, in other words, they’re mostly students… Or they have connections to students,” he amended. “They probably got the drugs at a party, so that probably means it was another student supplying them.”
John hesitated for a moment, ignoring the others as they began to discuss the possibilities. His mind was clutching at something. Then he remembered, there had been a party, one of those boys had said they’d gone to one with Jess’ boyfriend just before he’d given her the Dreamscape. Those boys…
He remembered them. Arguing and tense and in a room filled with plants.
“Did you say it was plant based?” He asked Tosh, cutting across the others conversation. She looked up at him, her face radiant.
“Definitely.”
“I know who gave Damien the Dreamscape.” He told them firmly.
* * * * *
David looked scared and miserable, while Alan was silent and surly and avoiding looking at Jack.
“I found the berries about a month ago, while I was doing some cataloguing for the university,” David told them. “There were six of them, no notes with them or anything. God knows how long they had been there, but they were still fresh. Nobody knew what they were and nobody seemed to care very much so I thought I’d make them into a private project.”
“What did you do with them?” Jack asked.
“Well from their makeup they looked like they were edible so I gave one to a rat. I borrowed him from the university as well. It just put him to sleep - a really deep sleep - he woke up the next morning, fine - happier - as far as you can tell with rats.”
“And the others?”
“I’d been having trouble sleeping, stress and… I know it was stupid but…”
“You took one,” John filled in for him. He was leaning against the door, so silent that Jack had almost forgotten he was there. David nodded, his eyes not leaving the floor.
“What happened?” Jack asked him.
“I must have gone to sleep straight away, I woke up… I don’t know, fifteen hours later. Missed most of my lectures. All I could remember was that I’d had these incredible dreams. You know, really vivid, but I couldn’t remember them properly.”
“And there weren’t any side effects?” Jack pressed him; David met Alan’s eyes for a second and then shook his head. “OK, that’s two of them, what about the other four?”
“I tried one of the others,” Alan told him, taking over. “Same as David, good dreams, feeling of euphoria in the morning, no side effects.”
Possibly only bad things happened when people had nightmares, Jack thought.
“I planted the last three,” David continued, “tried different things - putting them in the dark, under lamps, different plant food. Only that one survived,” he gestured to a lush green plant stood on his desk. Through each leaf, its skeleton could be clearly seen - a delicate, vivid pink structure. Jack could see tiny purple buds beginning to grow.
“And you gave them to your friends? Even though you didn’t know what they were,” Jack asked him.
“We didn’t know they would do any damage,” Alan replied defensively. “They were natural; we thought they’d be alright.”
“Cannabis is natural - that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any bad side affects.” Alan snorted derisively.
“We didn’t mean any harm,” David told him, his voice was shaking. “As soon as we heard what had happened to Damien, we called everyone we had given it to, told them to destroy them. Didn’t we?” He looked at Alan desperately for confirmation, at first the other boy wouldn’t meet his gaze, then he nodded, slightly too quickly.
Jack was about to question him further when Gwen suddenly spoke in his ear, she sounded worried.
“Jack?” Turning away from the boys, he pressed his comm.
“Yep.”
“Detective Swanson just called us - she wants us to meet her in at Queen’s Arcade as soon as possible. She sounds desperate, Jack.”
“Right, I’ll come right away. Meet me there.”
“What about the others?”
“They can stay at the Hub for now. I’ll send John back with what we’ve found here - we’ll need it analysed. If we need them we can call them.”
Jack turned back to the boys.
“This is your lucky day. We have something else to deal with, but don’t try disappearing, because I will track you down and you don’t want to make me angry.”
* * * * *
Gwen headed out and without much else to do Owen headed to the greenhouse. He liked the plants. None of them were normal for a start, they were all of alien origin and they allowed him to dabble in research in his spare minutes. It was like returning to the beginnings of medicine.
He worked through the plants, making sure they were still all right, watering those that needed it. Picking off dead leaves and storing them in bags, he could look at them next time they had a quiet week.
As he pushed some branches aside to reach one of the smaller plants at the back, he spotted Tosh and Ianto below. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought they were flirting. He felt a twinge of guilt, he’d been horrible to Tosh in the last couple of days, everything had just seemed out of sorts.
Owen was about to get on with the plants, when Tosh suddenly, unexpectedly, pulled Ianto into a kiss. A passionate kiss. A familiar bloody kiss. What the hell was going on?
He waited until Ianto had headed back to the tourist information office and then went to find her.
“What the hell is going on?” He demanded.
“With what?” She replied distractedly, absorbed in something on her computer.
“With Ianto.” She flushed quickly and turned to look at him, biting her lip nervously.
“You saw us?”
“Yes, I bloody saw you,” he snapped, “You were kissing him!” Tosh sighed.
“Well, I might as well tell you. We’re dating, we have been for months.”
“What?” This conversation was completely insane. Tosh just shrugged at him and turned back to the computer, obviously not feeling the need to explain herself. Owen forced himself to take a few deep breaths, well just two, to calm himself down and tried again. It was clearly his responsibility to talk some sense into her. “Look Tosh, do you really think dating Ianto is a good idea?”
“I don’t see why we should be talking about this,” she told him firmly.
“Because I’m worried about you.”
“Look, it’s none of your business.”
“But… Ianto?” He couldn’t keep the exasperation from seeping into his voice but Tosh just ignored him, her lips were very thin. “I mean he’s so… so…. And him and Jack,” Owen hesitated. He had definitely been going to say something about Ianto and Jack but he had no idea what it was going to be. He rallied. “After what happened to Lisa do you really think he’s the sort of man you should be getting into a relationship with?”
It was a moment before she turned to look at him, her expression confused.
“Lisa?"
“Yeah, Lisa,” her face remained blank. “You know, his cyber-girlfriend, that he hid in the basement for months and lied about. The one who nearly killed us…”
“What are you talking about?” They stood in silence for a second, staring at each other. The dawning realisation that something was wrong clear on both their faces.
“You’re really going to wish you hadn’t said that,” Adam was leaning in the doorway, his expression dangerous.
* * * * *
“Follow me,” Detective Swanson told them cryptically once Jack arrived. She’d been tight lipped with Gwen while they were waiting, refusing to say anything where they might be overheard.
She led them into one of the back alleys opposite the shopping arcade - a well known shortcut to a local car park. It had been roped off by the police.
Half way down the alley, forensics were examining the body of a girl.
“She was strangled,” Swanson told them.
“Do you think it’s the same person who killed the woman you found this morning?” Gwen asked her.
“That’s what the evidence is suggesting.”
“A second murder within a day,” Jack sounded tired. Detective Swanson was silent for a moment and then took a deep breath.
“Fourth. We haven’t told the press yet and according to the times of death they’re all within ten hours of each other, roughly. No evidence, no witnesses…” Swanson waved one of her hands slightly, a small gesture which somehow clearly showed how powerless she was feeling.
“Fuck,” Gwen breathed.
“All right, well we’ll do what we can to help, but I don’t see what this has to do with us,” Jack told her, “I don’t see Torchwood scrawled on any of these walls.” It was almost flirting, but oddly lacklustre, there was definitely something wrong and Gwen decided that as soon as this was sorted out she was going to make Jack talk to her.
“We haven’t got any witnesses, but both ends of this alley are visible on CCTV footage.” Gwen glanced along the alley, the buildings on either side were tall, with no windows or doors or openings. “No one can get in or out of this alley without us knowing.”
“I’ve had my team going through the footage, they’ve already gone through the last 48 hours. Until the victim goes in, no one enters this alleyway who doesn’t leave it. There was no one down here when the girl was attacked.”
The unspoken questions hung in the air for a second. Only broken as Tosh’s voice suddenly appeared in their ear pieces. Jack turned away from them both.
“Jack? Gwen?”
“We’re here,” Jack’s voice echoed strangely, repeated through the comm. system.
“We’re all at Cathays Park… it’s… look you really have to get here. Meet us at the back of the Town Hall, all right.”
“Right.”
He turned back to Swanson.
“Something’s happened - we’ve got to go. But we’ll catch whoever did this,” Jack told her, his frustration and anger clear in his voice.
* * * * *
Ianto shuddered awake, cramped and uncomfortable. The water pounding down on him was ice cold, his clothes were soaked, sticking to his skin and he couldn’t stop his body from shivering violently.
After a few seconds he carefully tilted his head back, letting the water seep into his throat. It was too cold and his stomach was too empty, it made him feel sick, but it had been so long since he’d had enough to drink.
He couldn’t remember what had happened the night before or why he was in the bathroom but it was with rising excitement that he realised that for the first time since he had been brought here he wasn’t tied to anything.
It was difficult to get to his feet, the floor was slippy, his body weak and uncooperative and without his hands there was no way to balance himself but he managed it.
It took less time to take in the bathroom. Just a shower and a sink and a toilet. He tried the door as best he could with his bound hands but it was locked and too solid for him to break.
There was a small window above the toilet, wonderful Welsh architects had struck again making life easier for perverts. One glance out of it told him that he was too far up to risk escaping that way with his hands still bound.
As he looked around the room he caught sight of himself in the mirror for a moment. Pale and bruised, devoid of warmth. His shirt was torn and filthy. He turned from the mirror quickly and checked the rest of the room.
There wasn’t much that could help him, but the shower cubicle’s door was made of glass. It stood open, resting against the wall. He looked at it for a while, it was his only hope. If he could break it…
He tried kicking it, but there was nothing to balance against and he couldn’t muster the strength. It just banged harmlessly against the wall.
Finally, hopelessly, he threw his whole body against the door. He felt it hit the wall behind him, flex slightly, and then resettle back into shape. He tried again. For a second he thought it had worked, but then there was nothing.
Again and again he threw himself against the door, the last of his energy ebbing away. Until suddenly, unexpectedly, the glass broke beneath his weight. He sunk to his knees as it gave way, feeling the broken shards digging into his back and legs, one piece piercing his arm deeply.
He sucked in a breath and then bit down on his tongue to stem the pain. He had to sit for what felt like an age, recovering.
Finally he looked to his side where the metal hinge of the door still stood, clinging onto a jagged broken edge of glass. It would be enough.
It was a struggle to get back to his feet and difficult to saw through the soaking electrical tape. More than once he slipped, cutting his hands and wrists. He had no sense of time anymore, but it must have taken at least half an hour; it felt like days. At last the tape gave way, his muscles screaming at the sudden freedom.
He sank onto the toilet seat, grateful for the rest and surveyed the damage. He was starving and soaking and covered in blood. The piece of glass that had cut his arm was still stuck in it, but he couldn’t risk pulling it out. Instead, finding a towel, he ripped strips of bandages and did what he could.
When he was finished, Ianto stood with a steadiness of purpose that his body couldn’t hope to match and surveyed the window. Only the top part opened, it would be a tight squeeze and he’d have to drop at least a storey and then he had no idea where he was. But he had to get back to the team.
* * * * *
Cathays Park was usually immaculate - beautifully designed and sculpted - but that had all disappeared. Instead it looked like a scene from World War II, almost exactly like a scene from World War II, Jack noted wryly.
There were trenches and wire and guns, the remains of bodies and even in the distance the shattered wreck of a plane. A Spitfire by the look of it.
He looked across at John, who shrugged.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
“And it wasn’t like this last night?”
“It wasn’t like this an hour ago. There’s CCTV footage,” Tosh explained, “it goes blurry for a second and this sort of pops into existence.”
“Maybe a piece of World War II got caught in the Rift and popped out here,” Gwen suggested.
“It’s possible but I haven’t picked anything up on the Rift monitor.”
Jack left them discussing it and made his way through the desolated Park to where the plane had crashed. He was careful not to look too closely at the things around him; it was hard to ignore the memories crowding around him as it was.
They already had too much to deal with and this was just another thing that he didn’t understand and had no idea how to solve. He hated days like this. He pushed aside the feeling that his bad mood was more about John than anything else. He didn’t want to think about that either.
It was only when Jack was close to the spitfire that he noticed something was wrong. The shape was off and, yes, it was far too big. He reached out to touch the cold metal. It was real, but even that didn’t feel right.
He turned quickly, surveying the scene, and other mistakes jumped out at him. He couldn’t believe he had missed them before.
Jack quickly returned to where the others were arguing about what course of action Torchwood Guidelines would suggest when a historical battlefield manifested itself in your city.
“It’s not real,” he told them firmly, they looked at him blankly. “Well it is real, it’s here, but it’s not right - it’s more like a film set than a battlefield.”
“I was beginning to get that impression as well,” Owen added. He was crouched a little way away next to one of the bodies. “We’ve got a lot of blood and guts here, but half the vital organs are missing - not blown out of your body missing either - there isn’t even any space left where you could have fitted them.”
“So we’ve got a made up battlefield instead of a real one,” John tried to interrupt, “I’m not really sure how that makes the problem any easier.”
“It’s like someone just put in what they expected to find in a body,” Owen continued, the words stirred a memory.
“What was it you said about Errol when we first found him?” Jack asked. “That he was like a…”
“Child’s drawing,” Owen finished. They looked at each other, ignoring the others, putting the pieces together. Then Jack nodded at him.
“Right, there’s nothing we can do here for now. Gwen - call the police, get them to seal off the area and start the clean up operation. Then, you and John go to the University residences,” he looked over at John. “I need you to bring those students we were talking to earlier to the Hub. There’s something they’re not telling us.”
“The rest of us will go straight there. We have a murderer to catch.”
* * * * *
Owen rubbed the rough skin underneath Errol’s chin. From somewhere Jack had found a dog leash which just about fit him and now he was firmly tied to the banister. They didn’t have to wait long.
As soon as John and Gwen led the students through the Hub door, the pair shrank back, their eyes fixed on Errol, fear on their faces. Beside him, Errol’s back arched and his wings spread open trying to make himself look bigger. He roared silently at them, clearly trying to flame but unable. Owen had never seen Errol react like this to anyone before.
“Shit,” one of them breathed.
“So I’m getting the impression that this isn’t the first time you’ve met our friend,” Jack said from above them on the gangway, his voice devoid of humour. They were too scared for a moment to respond.
“Why isn’t he… why isn’t there any fire?” One of the boys asked.
“We’ve stopped him,” Owen told them.
“So what else didn’t you tell us, David?” Jack asked.
“Look, we would have told you, told someone - but who would have believed us?”
“So you tried to kill him?” Owen spat at them.
“We didn’t have a choice - he nearly burnt the halls down and it wasn’t like there was anywhere we could take him,” the boy sounded genuinely sorry.
“What happened David?” Jack asked, continuing to ignore the other boy.
“It was like I said but… well, when I woke up the rat’s cage had turned into a massive maze. He was happy, though, he’d got to the centre and it was crammed with food - everything you could imagine. And that seemed like a good idea, I mean waking up with all the stuff you could want, so we both tried it. The dream was horrible and when I woke up he was there…”
“Nothing happened to me when I took it,” the other boy interrupted, “And my dreams were fine.”
“I’ll get to you later,” Jack snapped at him and turned back to David.
“What else?”
“I tried to look after him, but he kept getting bigger and in the end it was the only thing we could think of,” David’s voice was small. “But I promise you that there we told you everything else and we did make sure that all the remaining Dreamscape was destroyed.”
“Well, we have evidence that it wasn’t. I have a feeling you can tell me about that, Alan.” Jack turned at last to the other boy.
“We’ve told you everything we know,” Alan replied, David nodding desperately at his side, stopping in shock as Jack held up the Dreamscape that Ianto had found.
“We think this was bought from a drug dealer in town, we know you’re the only people who could have provided it, and we just need to know…”
As Jack had been talking, David had turned to stare in anger at Alan. Without warning he shoved him hard. Errol keened beside Owen.
“You gave them to him? I told you…”
“I didn’t have any other way to pay him,” Alan spat back at him. “He was threatening me...”
“We don’t have time for this, I don’t care why you did it,” Jack told them angrily, “All we want to know is who you gave it to.” Alan closed his mouth firmly, but David turned back to Jack, his expression still angry.
“He’s called Pete, I don’t know his last name, but you can usually find him at the Augustus John pub.”
“Fine, you two wait here, everyone else to the board room.”
Owen stroked Errol one last time and then followed the others. Jack was clearly tense and angry. It had been a long time since Owen had seen him this on edge. Once they were all in the room, he slammed the door shut behind them.
“So what do we know? Impress me, people.”
“Well, we know that the Dreamscape doesn’t just affect the people who have it in their system,” Tosh said, “It can create things as well.”
“And we know that there’s probably more out there,” Gwen added.
“Plus we have no idea how to get rid of the bloody stuff it creates,” John pointed out. Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Well,” Jack said, “Right now we haven’t got time to worry about that, our priority has to be to get the rest of the Dreamscape off the street and to find this murderer.”
“God knows how,” Gwen said. They’d explained what Detective Swanson had told them when they’d first arrived at the Town Hall, before they’d seen what had happened to the park.
“What if…” Ianto began at the same time and then stopped again; he had been oddly quiet all afternoon.
“What?” John snapped quickly at him, his voice threatening.
“What if someone took the drug and dreamt that they… dreamt about a murderer?” His voice was low, laced with horror.
“Shit,” Owen said.
“Right,” Jack said firmly. “Gwen, John - I need you to come with me, I have an idea. You three, I want you to retcon those two and take them back to their Halls. I don’t want them remembering any of this. Then find this Pete, find out how much Dreamscape he had and who he sold it to. I don’t want any left out there.”
* * * * *
There was no time, Jack and Gwen were waiting, but John had to talk to Adam. He managed to catch him alone as the others left the board room, too aware that he only had seconds to spare.
He seized his shoulders and threw him face first against the wall. Pinning him there.
“What have you done?” John growled. Adam pushed backwards, knocking John off balance, for once surprising him.
They struggled, and for an irrational moment, John thought Adam was taller than before. Eventually they separated - facing each other as they breathed heavily. They both kept their distance, although neither seemed willing to back down.
“Tell me what you’ve done,” John ordered him.
“I haven’t done anything,” Adam spat and then without another word stormed from the room.
John couldn’t fight the sensation that everything was spiralling out of control.
* * * * *
Adam escaped from John, his heart pounding. He had to get back to Ianto. That drug had done something… If it had helped him escape. Had turned him into a killer. He needed to find out.
He had to get back to Ianto. But first there was a job he had to do.
Adam cursed and then raced to find the others.
* * * * *
“Absolutely not. It’s a terrible idea,” Detective Swanson was furious but Jack just grinned at her in response. If she’d still been in the police, Gwen thought, Jack would have infuriated her - probably regularly.
“How many girls has this thing killed?” Jack asked her, Swanson hesitated before responding.
“Five. We found another body an hour ago.”
“And the only thing we know is that all the attacks have happened in alleys. Somehow this thing knows where the girls will be and that they’re alone and can get there without being caught on any CCTV cameras. It’s all we’ve got to go on.”
“Which isn’t any reason to use one of your people as bait!”
“I’ll be fine,” Gwen tried to reassure her, biting down on her annoyance.
“We don’t even know how…” Swanson began but Jack interrupted her.
“Gwen is highly trained. She knows what she’s doing, and me and John will be within hearing distance, as soon as she shouts - we’ll be there.” Seeing Swanson open her mouth again, Jack continued. “Whether you like this or not, we’re doing it.”
Swanson looked like she was about to argue again but then she shut her mouth firmly. Torchwood were outside her power.
Jack turned back to Gwen. Despite what he’d said, he looked concerned. Behind him John was looking uncomfortable and distracted.
“We’re ready when you are,” he told her and then hugged her quickly, kissing her on the cheek. Gwen only smiled in return, turned and walked alone into the alley.
The sun was bright, the other end of the street clearly visible and with the comforting near presence of Jack and John, it should have been hard to be scared.
But Gwen had seen the body of the girl earlier. Her neck had been red and raw and Gwen couldn’t stop her heart from beating faster.
Gwen had almost reached the end of the alley, disappointed that Jack’s plan had failed when she was suddenly plunged into darkness. The air chilled around her and a heavy patter of rain began to fall.
She turned quickly to look behind her, but there was nobody there and she was suddenly nervously aware how far away John and Jack now were.
Turning back she realised that she could no longer see the end of the alley, seconds before it had only been a few feet away. She glanced between the two distant ends feeling trapped in the limitlessness of the alley.
“Jack!” She shouted, beginning to back against the alley wall. “Jack! John!”
With a feeling of terror, her back hit something firm, but it was not the cold slippery surface of the wall. There was softness to it, warmth, a tall threatening presence and then hard hands wrapped around her neck.
Gwen screamed and then pulled away, wrenching from the man's grasp. She flung herself backwards against the opposite wall, catching her first sight of him - tall and dark - his face menacing in the dim light.
As he came back towards her, she kicked out hard, knocking him back slightly and then fumbling pulled out her gun pointing it firmly at him.
“Don’t even think about it,” she told him and he smiled. A chilling smile.
Without warning he seized her hand and spinning her, crushed it against the wall until the gun was forced from her fingers. With his other hand he seized her neck, pressing her face against the stones.
His hand tightened, squeezing and she gasped painfully, the world turning a shade darker and then suddenly the pressure was gone and she could breathe again.
Warm arms caught her as she almost fell and she looked up into John’s worried face, he grinned at her briefly.
“I guess we’ll have to find another way to get rid of you,” he told her. Gwen laughed weakly and was horrified to hear that it sounded more like a sob, but John wasn’t paying attention. He had looked away from her and his face collapsed for a moment before it hardened. “Fuck,” he breathed.
Gwen followed his gaze, Jack was on the ground, his weight pinning the man to the floor, light returning around them as the dark unnaturalness vanished.
It highlighted their hair, the way Jack’s hand wrapped around the man’s arm, the vulnerable place at the base of a neck where the man’s shirt had torn slightly.
It highlighted the way Jack was gazing down at the man, his expression soft and oddly undone, undisguised longing in his eyes.
CHAPTER 6